Will be visiting Glentress for the first time next monday or tuesday. Can i expect there to be loads of midges, if so is a spray (worth it?) recommended? Will probably be on my own so will be taking it easy, so which route is recommended for a ‘wheels on the ground’ XC rider?

Ta

Black all the way! Least Jumpy of all the trails (from when I last did it a while ago)

Midges, probably, Skin So Soft seems top of the list after napalm

GT isn’t too bad for midges. I’ve never needed spray there.

You will be fine on the red or black depending on whatever length you fancy. The routes can all be done with wheels on the ground and the black is just a little longer and rougher.

If you want a fun but not too taxing day, red in the morning, coffee and cake, then blue in the afternoon? There are only shortish bits of overlap between the two (the first climb) and the blue has lots of fast fun sections and is a great trail.

Folks will no doubt be along shortly to tell you about all of the other options and bits but if you are on your own, it is probably easier just to follow a normal trail and not have to worry about which way you are going all of the time.

Its not particulary bad for midges, there are some but they aren’t a nuisance, just don’t hang about in the trees.

You can keep you wheels on the ground on everything at glentress, no mandatory air. But the black is probably the closest to the classic definition of an XC route

The pissing rain normally keeps the midges away.

The midges were pretty bad a couple of weeks ago, but only if you hung around in the car park or on the trail. If your going with a group and expect to be hanging around take some spray. Smidge spray is very good, but slightly more expensive than some alternatives.

Its not particulary bad for midges, there are some but they aren’t a nuisance, just don’t hang about in the trees.

The midgies this year are pretty bad. You’ll be fine if you don’t stop but if you have a puncture etc they’ll pick you up, stash you somewhere and consume you at a time that is more convenient. Also you’ll be doing well to be more than a few feet away from a tree given that you’re riding round a forest. On the plus side it’s not as bad as Kielder. Ignore the blue and you’ll miss out on some of the best riding in the forest, so I’d suggest doing the blue and then if you feel able do the red. If you are reasonably fit you’ll easily manage both.

If you look at the map it is really easy to combine bits of the red, blue and black routes into one. You’ll do a few climbs twice to get to some bits but it should be fine.

Never noticed a problem with midgies at GT…

Never noticed a problem with midgies at GT…

Well I suppose you could live dangerously.

I was down the other day, while the midges never really bothered me my mates were always going on about them when ever we stopped.

I’ve never done the black run so cant comment on that but all the others can be done while keeping the wheels on the ground

Cheers for the info lads

Personally I would ride up to the buzzards and spend an hour or so around there on various loops – blue velvet / berm baby berm / zoom and bust / essentials – then head on up to spooky woods maybe a couple of loops of the pie run on the way back down.